Customer Reviews

Thermaltake Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS MicroATX/ITX Gaming Cube PC Case (Black)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am giving this case a five star review because I have built a few computers over the years and by far Thermaltake makes the best cases I have ever worked with. The case is designed and constructed to Thermaltake's high standards and I am not disappointed in this case. MY PROBLEM, however, is the fact that Amazon describes this case a ATX/microATX. THIS CASE IS NOT ATX SIZED! From the documents included with the case it is designed for either microATX or miniITX form factor motherboards. The ONLY thing that is ATX sized is power supply opening. Again, Amazon is not the only company to make this mistake as I checked out the same case on other websites and they too list this as an ATX case. So if you are considering this case please keep this in mind. Otherwise this case is very nice and has a great many features I like such as tool-less opening, sturdy construction, and great air flow over components.

What's good about the case:
Beautiful gloss black finish, well-made Solid case, not cheap and flimsy. Completely modular. All components can be removed, from the motherboard tray to the hdd bay to the DVD tray and even the psu, most by just removing some thumbscrews. Plenty of room for my micro ATX mobo, 3 hdd's, 1 DVD and Corsair psu. I was even able to route the extra cables for a clean-looking installation. Super-quiet dual rear fans, I can't even hear them run. Front 92mm fan can be heard but is not objectionable. All 3 seem to keep my HTPC cool and quiet. The hidden DVD tray is a nice touch and works very well. I also LOVE that they replaced the center motherboard stand-off with a kind of stud. It holds the mobo in place so you can easily install the screws.

What's not so good:
Side windows are nice but they do show the dust, They're not real easy to clean unless you get creative with some kind of cleaning "wand", otherwise it might take disconnecting a few things but the modularity of this case makes that super easy. Knowing this now, I still think I would have purchased this window model. The plus's offset the minus's by far.

With that beautiful gloss black finish on the outside, you would think they would have painted the modular components at least a flat back instead of the natural "silver" finish. Once I get past the warranty, I'll be pulling it apart to paint the inside. Which of course will be SUPER EASY due to the modularity! Did I say that already?

System Specs:
Asus M4A88TD-M USB3
G.Skill DDR3 1333 2x2gb
AMD Athlon II X2 250
Asus Xonar DG sound card
Corsair CX430 psu
Hauppage HVR 2250
(3) Samsung F3 Eco-Green 1tb hdd

Other thoughts:
I'm working thru a problem right now with my HTPC resetting itself. At this point I can't tell if it's a case issue or a motherboard issue and it's intermittent. I have the front panel controls and USB/Audio disconnected at this time to eliminate them. I don't know if anyone else has had this trouble. I'm leaning toward the motherboard but at this point I don't know. I know the motherboard is not shorting to anything.

Pros:
- Very modular case, I cannot believe how easy it was to install the parts even though it was cramped when assembled.
- Cooling setup better than I expected even though ambient temperatures on load can exceed 40*C (see cons as well)
- Looks amazing with interior lighting thanks to the acryllic panel
- Very solid build
- Accepts regular-sized PSUs! (Don't expect to cram in 1000+W elongated power supplies)
- Accepts fairly large graphics cards. I have a 9800GTX+ double slot card barely fitting. Supposidly will do SLI but you will have to sacrifice one 3.5" drive on the side.
- Fluorescent orange 60mm fans are a nice touch

Cons:
- WARNING: do not put pressure on the acryllic panels! I made the mistake of gripping the case near the arcryllic and squeezed it too hard (and cracked it across). The ventillation cuts make the panels fragile. This wouldn't happen normally but my chair slid out from under causing me to squeeze the panels too tough in anticipation for the rough fall.
- Cuts in the arcryllic panels make it difficult viewing the components inside, defeats the purpose of having the panels?
- The fans are noisy by my standards, far too audible but hey it's a gaming case. The 60mm fans don't even appear to be moving that much air anyways. Could have benefited from a design where there is a bigger fan there but the case is already oversized as is.
- The ambient temperature inside the case gets very very hot, I don't think I would even attempt to overclock this bad boy (I previously housed this CPU in a different rig at (232x12.5) ~2900 MHz)
- Edges are sharp, lost some blood putting parts together
- No handle for easy transportation?
- Blue light in front is way too bright I sharpied it.
- Conversely the red HDD light is way too dim compared to the blue power light, maybe I plugged it in incorrectly? (doubtful)
- The inside is a brushed silver aluminum color. WHY? Why didn't thermaltake also paint the inside the same as the outside? Such a bummer.
- Fingerprint magnet

System Specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 805 AM3 2.5GHz (200x12.5)
HSF: Zalman CNPS7000C-ALCU
MOBO: MSI 880GM-E43
RAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 @ 1333MHz
GPU: PNY 9800 GTX+ 512 MB
PSU: Thermaltake 600W
HDD: Seagate 400GB SATA
OPTI: Sony 20x DVD+/-RW PATA
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64
MONI: Samsung BX2231 21.5" 1080p LED LCD
BLING: NZXT Red LED Case Light 2m

Overall: Still a good buy. Don't expect it to be super duper quiet because this is more of a gaming rig box for hauling to LAN parties where noise isn't a big problem, but you will notice the noise in a living room.

I love this case. All of my friends thought I built a microwave when they first saw it. I wish I could have gotten the one that had the handle on it. I'm buying a lightkit for it cool. I like the finish on the chassis and I like that I can fit an Nvidia 9800GT in there with no problem. You can even mount your hard disk where the floppy disk drive would go and that out the part on the bottom that you would normally put the drives in if not needed. Blue Orb II fits in this, so I'm also happy since my Intel Stock cooler is(was) highly audible in this case.

Everything here is modular, easily accessible, and while one reviewer (errantly) gave it 3 starts complaining about the weight/size... which is just silly - you cannot buy a mini-tower case that is easier to build / install / repair and will last through many computer builds, while looking good the whole time.

I have owned both the black solid steel sided version (since 2007) and now the steel + acrylic windowed version of this case (2011). For a few bucks more you might still be able to find the lighter Aluminum version (silver in appearance) and it came with a top-carrying handle. Though I think it's discontinued, but I've found one or two internet warehouses that still have one or two for sale.

Pros:
Japanese Steel (likely from a recycled US aircraft carrier)
Modular everything (drive bays, power supply bay, slide-out motherboard tray in back).
Very solid construction
90% thumbscrew access, 10% Phillips head screws + Phillips head mATX mounting of motherboard.
Sexy look, perfect for HTPC, or compact work areas.

Cons:
As one user noted, its a little heavy... to but falsely say its "as large" as his full ATX tower, is just misleading. I would say the good weight means it's quality steel and not cheesy plastic or thin & weak metal. If the user wanted a lighter version (goto the gym weakling... lol) then he should've bought the aluminum edition with the top-carry handle I mentioned. I used this to take with me as a DJ / VJ rig, so I'm used to toting it around, as a lanboy would.

I built a new computer and I used this as my tower, if you want to know the pros well read all the 5 star reviews previously posted and you will see them listed very clearly there. Now for the life in me I could not figure out how to slide the top lid back into place. I studied the slot mechanism that is suppose to fall in place once pressure is applied but the fact is that I could not get enough pressure to slide the lid back in place without bending the metal. I built the whole computer in 2 hours and spent an hour trying to close the top lid. I gave up and decided to test my luck another day. If anyone knows the secret to closing the lid please leave a comment. As for my other complaint this box did not provide an adequate slot for placing a generic media card reader anywhere on it so that was a downside. Apart from that I had a little hard time adjusting my mother board to the power cable provided since they were different from one another and I ended up having to adapt the cable in order to make it work. Good luck to you guys with this great tower. It really is amazing! now if it had only brought an extra 6mm fan with it.

EDIT:
I finally figured out how to fully close the top lid. It was bent in a spot, which I easily corrected. However the power button broke and the backside USB port along the front USB port all have broken in half after 2 years of little use.

Great box. I love the blue led. Plenty of room inside. Since you can detach all the different pieces of the box, it's easy to add/change components.

Nice box, well made and sturdy but also huge and heavy. I thought when the product was called a LANbox that it would be compact and light but it is just as huge and heavy as my other full tower case and weighs the same so what makes it a LANbox? I guess because it is more box shaped than rectangular. If I was naming it I would call it a "weighted companion cube". I also had problems with the wiring being too short to fit my front panel connectors.

The thermaltake Lanbox lite is one of its kind. I love the removable motherboard tray which made my life easier on installing my components. It doesn't take too much space inside your house and it looks awesome too with the side panels being transparent. Also, the side panel has a grill which adds extra ventilation to keep your PC cool.

Few things that you have to take note when going for this product:

1) Make sure that your CPU heatsink is no more than 100mm in height. When I built my brother's PC with this case I chose a Cooler Master Vortex Plus CPU Cooler RR-VTPS-28PK-R1 which is only 59mm in height plus the radiator fins goes over my RAM sticks and provides cooling for them. My RAM sticks are Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) Low profile heatsinks. If you choose a RAM sticks with a high profile heatsink, you will have to look for another CPU heatsink like the slimX3 by Thermaltake.

2) If you can, spend extra on a modular power supply because it will make your building easier. I went with corsair's TX750M for this. But any PSU will do if you can't afford a modular one.

3) The chassis will not fit in a video card longer than 10 inches. I have put a EVGA GTX 550 on my brother's build. I could have bought him a better GPU but you know... BUDGET... :P

If you want to know the full build of my brother's PC, scroll down for the parts so you can imagine how it will look like should you choose to build with this case.

CPU: i3-2100K LGA 1155
MoBo: Asus p8H61-M LE/CSM LGA 1155
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8 GB 1333Mhz DDR3 (4x4GB)
Heatsink: Cooler Master Vortex Plus CPU Cooler RR-VTPS-28PK-R1
PSU: Corsair TX750M
GPU: EVGA GTX 550ti (Fermi) 2Gb 192-Bit GDDR5
***EXTRA: Vantec SP-FC70-BL Spectrum System Fan Card with Dual Adjustable 70mm UV LED Fans (Blue) ***Blowing towards the GPU.
Chassis: Thermaltake Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS MicroATX/ITX Gaming Cube PC Case (Black)

Well that's all I guess.. I hope this review helps.

Jan Meden V.

Let me first state that this is not your typcial small form factor (SFF) mini-ITX/micro-ATX case! This thing is quite large and the reason for this is it's designed as a gaming case with enough room to fit large dual slot graphics cards and a full size ATX power supply which is not included. Build quality is good but don't expect Silverstone level quality as there's no aluminum here, only steel and the front panel is all plastic, but given the price it's expected. The glossy black painted steel top cover blends in nicely with the glossy black plastic front panel.

This is a very functional case. The front larger blue LED intake fan is quiet and draws in cool air via the vented front lower panel. This fan also blows cool air over the hard drive. The two smaller rear exhaust fans are also very quiet. All three fans come with molex connectors and have no provision for speed control via the motherboard's system fan header, however given that the fans are so quiet you don't really need to control their speed.

The slide out motherboard tray is very convenient but its usefulness is best during initial builds when the case is basically empty. Once you connect all the wires to the motherboard you won't be able to slide it out without removing the wires. In other words you'll only want to slide it out if you upgrade the entire motherboard as everything else could be upgraded without the need to slide it out. For example upgrading the CPU/fan/heatsink is easier if you just lift up the power supply cage out of the way instead of disconnecting all wires just to slide out the motherboard only to have to reconnect all the wires back again which is a PITA.

The two 5.25" drive bays are very useful for those who like to install separate controls and/or displays. For non-gaming rigs they could be used for dual optical drives so you could make direct copies without copying to the hard drive first. On my setup I have one Blu-ray burner and one dedicated DVD burner installed in the two bays. On the left vertical 3.5" bay I have a multi-card reader installed. In my system with an AMD FX8120 clocked at 4GHz the loudest fan is the stock CPU fan which spins up to 6K rpm under full load. Under normal everyday internet browsing the system is not very loud. I'm only using onboard integrated graphics so keep that in mind.